So here I am, sitting in an internet cafe in Little India, Singapore. It's been a wild first couple of days in Southeast Asia, I'll say that much. Admittedly, it's all a bit overwhelming. I guess I'll start at the beginning- Day 1. Well, technically, Day 1 didn't actually exist, as it disappeared somewhere over the Pacific Ocean as we crossed the International Dateline. So Day 2 is where we'll start.
We didn't have a place to stay the first night we arrived, and since we got in around midnight, we weren't going to try and find one. Instead, we decided to bunk down in the airport until morning. Now, Singapore Changi International Airport is supposedly one of the nicest, most amazing airports out there, so we weren't too bummed about staying there. Unfortunately, once we went through customs, the arrivals part of the airport was much less inviting--hard linoleum floors, hard wooden benches, every shop closed for the night-even LegoLand. So finally, we just found a quiet little place on the floor underneath an escalator, spread out our nice new blankets generously donated to us by United Airlines and passed out.
After a fitful 5 hours of sleep, we called it quits, got up, skyped ma, and set off for the big city. And once we arrived we....didn't know what to do. So we just started walking. And that's pretty much what we did for the next, I don't know, maybe 6 or 7 hours or so. While carrying 25 pound packs on our back, mind you. In 90 degree, 100% humidity, mind you. We eventually got to the point where we were so hot and bothered that we bought a train ticket and rode around the entire country just to be able to sit in air conditioning. Singapore's kind of small, in case you didn't know, so riding around the country didn't take too long. But once 7 0'clock rolled around, we "alighted" from the train and met up with Adrian, a Singaporean I met through CouchSurfing.com who was going to put us up for a couple of nights. I'll tell you what, within the first couple minutes of talking with Adrian, the city just changed dramatically. When we first arrived, we knew nothing about anything in Singapore, but Adrian humanized the big city for us. He answered every question, pointed out the landmarks, and ordered local delicacies like the practised CouchSurfing host he is. But after a big meal including such goodies as lamb and chicken satay, barbecued stingray, and oyster omelet, both Kevin and I were overcome by downright exhaustion. So Adrian took us back to his place and we crashed. Unfortunately, Adrian didn't have a spare key to his place so we had to wake up when he left for work. At 7 am in the morning.
Thus begins Day 3.
Another loooonnng day of walking. We hit up a nice park with a 9km long trail and got some nice photos along the way. We spotted a giant spider the size of Kevin's face on the side of the trail. After that we stopped by a fun little place called Haw Par Villa with all sorts of great photo opportunities. It's a whole park filled with thousands of statues depicting lessons of morality and stories from Chinese mythology. The crowning display was a charming little place called the 10 Courts of Hell. It displayed with incredible gory detail the various punishments dealt to all kinds of evildoers. A personal favorite was your "body sawn into two" for the misuse of books and/or wasting food. So you better finish all your vegetables.
We met up again with Adrian again that night, got some drinks at a hospital-themed bar, with wheelchairs for seats and IV's for sipping on, then called it quits.
Day 4.
Adrian had the day off work, so after waking up at noon, washing some shirts in the sink, we were ready to go. He took us around the ethnic neighborhoods of Chinatown and Little India. I can safely say I never seen sooo many things for sale in such small amounts of space in all my life. Adrian had to leave for a wedding, so he left us in a mind-blowing shopping center called Mustafa Centre. I mean wow. This one shopping center had anything you could ever possibly need. I'm not exaggerating. From every electronic made, to clothes, to dried squid, to home humidifiers (that just made absolutely no sense to me). This place had it all. Kevin and I fell to the consumerism, I won't lie. I bought a new digital camera (which truthfully, I planned on buying once we got here anyway) and we both split the cost of a small travel beard and mustache trimmer. No need to look unkempt, right?
And that brings us to the present. We're meeting up with Adrian later and we might go eat, or we might go back to his place (where there's AC) and sleep. Only time will tell. Stay Tuned.
p.s. I doubt I'll feel like writing half this much again, so don't get used to it. Though sometimes, the urge does hit me. I mean, every traveler fancies the idea of being a "travel writer," so we'll see how it goes...
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keep it coming, its great to stay updated... KJN
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